Good Financial Reads: For Home Buyers

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Do you have some extra money, and a mortgage, and you’re wondering whether you should put that extra money towards that mortgage? Maybe you have some room in every paycheck after doing the “usual” savings. Or maybe you recently had a windfall, like an inheritance or bonus or RSUs that vested.

If you have a mortgage, this is usually when you’d start asking yourself, “I wonder what I should do with this extra money. Should I put it towards my mortgage? But then again, I always hear that you should invest it, because the stock market should return more than my mortgage rate. Oh, I’m so confused!”

Once we graduate college and get our first job, it seems like our next unwritten goal in life is to buy a new home. Right or wrong, that seems to be how life goes. I’m by no means saying it’s the wrong choice to make – heck I did it and still own a home – but should it really still be called the “American Dream?”

In my humble and probably subjective opinion, the answer is no. While home ownership can be an incredible feeling and certainly a feeling of “growing up,” it’s definitely not for everyone. There are plenty of pros and cons to owning a home just as there are plenty of pros and cons to renting. It’s up to each individual to determine what’s right for them.

If you want to buy a home in the next 2 months, you should totally become my client.

No, I don’t have any special house-buying sauce, but it seems to be a trend among my clients: start working with me, and then buy a home before we even finish the initial planning process. It’s certainly an effective way to give you focus and motivation!

Buying a home is a huge financial change, especially if you’re living in the Bay Area or Seattle or NY or Boston…where both the tech industry and housing market are hot. Overnight, your financial situation is way different: